text:
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text:
Mossberg's Mailbox
Microsoft Programs and the iPhone
There's no other major item most of us own that is as confusing, unpredictable and unreliable as our personal computers. Everybody has questions about them, and we aim to help.
Here are a few questions about computers I've received recently from people like you, and my answers. I have edited and restated the questions a bit, for readability. This week my mailbox contained questions about using Microsoft programs on the Apple iPhone, dividing software between a Mac and a PC and finding a video-conferencing service compatible with both operating systems.
Will the new Apple iPhone be able to open and edit Microsoft Word documents? Will it be able to synchronize calendar and contact entries with Microsoft Outlook?
These and many other questions I received about the iPhone are good ones. But they can't be answered yet. The iPhone won't be on the market until June, and its software isn't complete. Apple did say the phone would be able to synchronize calendar and contact entries with Windows computers, but didn't specify which Windows programs would be supported. As for Word documents, Apple said nothing about this, but I wouldn't rule it out. And remember, as with the iPod, the iPhone will be upgradeable with new features through Apple's iTunes program.
I am a Windows user who would like to buy a Macintosh but still keep my PC and work in both systems. Is there any way to avoid bankrupting myself by buying the same software on both systems?
Sure. Just use the machines for different purposes, and keep each stocked only with the software for those purposes. For instance, because it suffers from essentially no viruses and spyware, you might use the Mac for Web surfing and emailing — through its excellent built-in software — and dedicate the older Windows machine to software that's available only on Windows, or where the Windows version beats the Mac version, such as Quicken.
The Mac comes with a much richer collection of bundled software than a typical Windows PC does. For instance, its included iLife suite includes photo, video, music, Web-site creation and DVD-burning software that are hard to match on Windows, even if you spend extra. The new Windows Vista closes this gap some, but not completely. And the Mac has lots of nice little touches. For instance, without any additional software, a Mac can save any document or Web page as an Adobe PDF file, readable by any computer.
On the other hand, Windows offers many more niche or specialty programs, such as small-business software, and programs such as WordPerfect and Microsoft Access that some businesses and professional firms rely upon. And Windows kills the Mac on games.
The only software you might need to replicate on both platforms is Microsoft Office, which comes in versions for both. You can buy the Mac version for about $150.
I have just become a grandmother, but my granddaughter is a continent away. I would love to use Web cams to watch my granddaughter grow up, but my computer uses Windows and my daughter uses an Apple. Any suggestions for a video service that is compatible with the two systems?
Yes. Try SightSpeed, a very nice video-conferencing service that works on both Windows PCs and Macs. It can be downloaded at www.sightspeed.com.
* * *
Because of the volume of e-mail I receive, I can't routinely answer individual questions by e-mail, or consult on individual problems or purchasing decisions. I read all questions I receive and select three each week to answer in the column.
- Write to Walter S. Mossberg at email@example.com

subset: commoncrawl


text:
U.S. Reviews of Standards, Tests Enter New Phase
The U.S. Department of Education is on the verge of releasing the first draft of new guidance on the peer-review process for standards and tests, a document that could exert a powerful influence on how states set academic expectations.
Little known outside the assessment world, the process is wonky and technical. But it is an important tool for the federal agency in reviewing—and shaping—states' academic standards and testing systems.
The draft of updated guidance, expected this month, arrives as most states are trying out or designing new tests to reflect the Common Core State Standards. The testing industry, which crafts those assessments, and state testing directors, who oversee their administration to millions of students, have been waiting anxiously for any sign that the Education Department will change the criteria used to evaluate their systems.
"We're in this huge transition to a whole new system of tests, and this is one of the only leverage points the department has on what those assessment systems look like," said Anne Hyslop, who has been monitoring the peer-review process as a policy analyst with the New America Foundation, a Washington think tank.
Many in the assessment world are worried, though, because few, if any, of the prominent figures in the field have been asked to help shape the upcoming draft.
At meetings with state schools chiefs and assessment leaders this summer, Education Department officials tried to assuage those worries by repeating that the draft is only a "straw man," intended to prompt input from the field. Once reaction is gathered from experts and the public, the document will be revised and a final version released in early 2015.
Valid and Reliable
States have been undergoing peer review of their standards and assessments since the late 1990s because of requirements in the two most recent incarnations of the federal Elementary and Secondary Education Act: the Improving America's Schools Act of 1994 and the No Child Left Behind Act, signed into law in 2002. Among other criteria, states must show that their tests are aligned with their standards and are valid and reliable for their intended purposes.
The Education Department under President Barack Obama has articulated a vision of testing that goes beyond such provisions, however. The department suspended the peer-review process in December 2012, telling states in a letter that the criteria needed updating in light of assessment capabilities the agency articulated in its Race to the Top assessment competition, which funded two state consortia to design tests for the common standards, and in its No Child Left Behind waiver program, which imposed conditions on states in exchange for exemption from certain tenets of that law.
To be part of those projects, states had to have tests that show how well students are progressing toward college and career readiness, measure skills that previously were hard to measure, and produce data that can be used to judge the effectiveness of teachers, principals, and schools. Just how the department will reshape the criteria to reflect those ideas is a subject of intense interest in key corners of the K-12 world.
When a state changes its standards or tests, it begins the U.S. Department of Education's process of peer review. The department assembles a team of three peer reviewers who are experts in measurement or large-scale assessment. States submit evidence that their standards and tests meet criteria in federal law, and in regulations and guidance that flesh out the law.
Review focuses on 39 "critical elements" in seven areas; states supply evidence of each for review.
- Challenging content standards
- Challenging achievement levels
- Statewide assessment system
- Tests of high technical quality
- Alignment of standards and tests
- Inclusion of all students
- Effective system of assessment reports
Peer-review team submits written recommendations to Education Department. Department sends decision letter to state classifying system as fully approved, approved with recommendations, approval expected, or approval pending. States with unapproved systems must supply timeline for required changes, and face possible agency oversight or withholding of Title I administrative aid.
Read two white papers that the Education Department considered in designing new peer review criteria for assessments:
There has been talk of including other matters in the criteria as well. Federal education officials have been urged to consider requiring states to show that their tests have appropriate security measures. Internally, department officials have discussed whether to require states' tests to assess writing, a pivotal skill in the common standards, which are now in effect in more than 40 states. Many states' current assessments don't probe students' writing skills.
One federal Education Department official told Education Week that a central idea in developing new criteria is ensuring that states' tests reflect a "depth of knowledge" that might well require "going beyond a multiple-choice answer structure."
The department hopes to move the peer-review process "away from minutiae" to "bigger-picture validity that is predictive of college and career readiness," said the official.
Difficult Terrain
Even before the new draft criteria are issued, however, the Education Department is in a politically tricky position because of the controversies that have flared in some states around the common core.
Opponents have argued that the common standards and tests represent a federal intrusion into local education decisions because the department funded the two main testing consortia—the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers, or PARCC, and Smarter Balanced—and offered incentives for states to adopt the standards. Such opposition has led some states to back out of the projects.
"The department is between a rock and a hard place" in setting the peer-review criteria, said a former department official who, like most of the experts interviewed by Education Week for this article, agreed to speak only on condition of anonymity to avoid alienating colleagues.
"If they don't take this responsibility seriously, they realize it could all devolve again into where we were with NCLB, with 50 states, 50 different goal posts, and 50 different ideas of what assessment should look like," the former official said. "On the other hand, by wading in at all, even though it's their legal responsibility to do so, the department once again becomes the lightning rod for claims of federal overreach."
That landscape means reaction to new peer-review criteria in high-level state offices could be very different from what it might have been five years ago.
"States have been going through this process for a long time, but the temperature has been turned way up now," said Andy Smarick, a partner at Bellwether Education Partners, a nonprofit Washington consulting firm. "I wouldn't be surprised if most governors, and many state chiefs, especially new ones, won't understand that this has a long legacy. Many will come to this for the first time, and how many will be upset that the feds are involved in this?"
Opinion on the value of the peer-review process is mixed, since a number of problems have hobbled it in the past. Some wonder whether years of reviewing has done anything to improve standards or assessments.
Michael J. Petrilli, the president of the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, a Washington research and advocacy group, noted that while some states have been respected for high standards and good-quality tests, others have had weak ones.
"There doesn't seem to be any evidence that [peer review] has helped improve assessments in the past," he said. "It's been a waste of time."
Even some policy experts who were central to developing the process acknowledge that long-standing legal restrictions limit its usefulness.
Because federal laws bar the Education Department from controlling the content taught in schools, peer reviewers can't pass judgment on the quality of states' standards. That part of the review is little more than a "check-box exercise" of compliance, said Michael Cohen, who helped develop the process as the department's assistant secretary for elementary and secondary education under President Bill Clinton.
"Not all the [states'] standards were great, but the federal criteria were that tests had to be aligned to standards," said Mr. Cohen, who is now the president of Achieve, a Washington group that advocates higher standards and helped develop the common core.
A Frequent Complaint
Peer reviewers don't examine states' actual standards or tests. Instead, they examine evidence—typically, multiple boxes of it—of whether those standards and assessments meet specific requirements of federal law. To evaluate whether a state's standards are "challenging," for instance, peer reviewers might look at documentation of the steps a state took to create rigorous standards.
Still, Mr. Cohen and others said, peer review has tremendous value because it makes states focus more intently on aligning tests to standards and on documenting their tests' technical quality.
A frequent complaint about peer review is inconsistency in findings from state to state.
Michael Hock, the assessment director in Vermont, recently told attendees at the Council of Chief State School Officers' annual assessment conference that states in the New England Common Assessment Program all used the same test, but got differing evaluations of that test from peer-review teams.
States' experience going through peer review depended a lot on which set of peer reviewers, and which Education Department staff members, they were assigned to work with, said William J. Erpenbach, who served as a peer reviewer under three presidential administrations and has advised many states as they prepare their materials for submission.
Experts say the process has been undermined, too, by weakness on the key question of "validity"—whether tests are designed appropriately for the way states want to use them. They cited both inadequate proof of validity by states, and insufficient demands by reviewers for stronger evidence.
"They never really attended to validity," a senior-level source in the assessment industry said of the reviews.
To complicate the situation further, federal education officials' concept of validity has evolved to emphasize predictive ability, experts say. It's not enough anymore for a state to show that a test is a valid indicator of a middle school student's math skills; it must show that the test is a good predictor of whether that student is "on track" to be college-ready in a few more years.
The field also increasingly seeks "more sophisticated" evidence of validity, said Ellen Forte, who served as a department peer reviewer and now advises states on their assessment systems as the president, CEO, and chief scientist at edCount, a Washington consulting firm.
"Now [the field is] working at a much finer grain size, going deep into the domain and its skills," said Ms. Forte. She isn't convinced, she added, that the peer-review process demands the kinds of evidence that form "the backbone of validity."
Similarly, peer reviews have often sought to determine a test's alignment to standards based on whether most of the standards are found in the assessment items. That's a lower level of alignment than federal officials seem to be seeking now when they describe high-quality assessments as measuring deeper, more nuanced levels of student achievement, experts say.
"[Peer review] has looked at alignment only on a superficial level," said the senior-level assessment source. "Now, defining what alignment means will be big deal. If a test doesn't reflect the intended depth of knowledge of the standards, it will be found wanting."
Alignment in Question
Several people interviewed for this story said that if the new criteria don't require states' tests to reflect the writing skills in the common core, such as citing evidence from text to support an argument, the federal government will, in effect, be allowing states to use tests that aren't aligned to those standards.
"If kids aren't writing and drawing evidence from text, then a test on its face isn't aligned" to the common core, Mr. Cohen of Achieve said. "You don't need an elaborate set of criteria to figure that out."
Some educators question the value of peer review in part because states rarely experience penalties when their tests fall short of full approval. And many do fall short: At one point in 2002, only 19 states' systems met federal criteria. Between 2010 and 2012, 15 to 20 states' systems had not obtained even conditional approval.
And while some states have had to submit to compliance agreements, few have ever paid the ultimate penalty for unapproved standards or tests: forgoing a portion of their federal Title I administrative funds.
Need For Expertise
In addition to concerns about a lack of outside input in developing the forthcoming criteria, many in the assessment field are worried that the Education Department currently lacks the right kinds of expertise to craft good criteria for assessments. Key staff members with backgrounds in measurement or large-scale assessment, such as Carlos Martinez and Sue Rigney, who oversaw peer review in recent years, have retired or changed jobs within the department.
"The department is now in a place where it's far less capable" of designing the right criteria and supporting states in building good testing systems, said Ms. Forte, the edCount executive.
Department officials did not respond to a request for comment on that question of capacity, or on concerns in the field as it undertakes revisions of the peer-review process.
Many state and testing-industry officials who were interviewed for this story said they'd like to see the peer-review process evolve into an ongoing relationship of technical support. They'd also like to see it become more open and collaborative.
During some periods of peer review, state officials have been allowed to speak directly with their reviewers. But during other periods, no face-to-face communication was permitted. States simply received decision letters from the federal department.
Mr. Erpenbach said that when he was allowed to sit down and talk with state officials during the process, he was often able to resolve many issues.
Some in the assessment world have worried privately that the Education Department's new criteria might set forth requirements that only its own grantees—PARCC and Smarter Balanced—could meet. That would pose big problems, since nearly half the states plan to use other tests in 2014-15.
"It's really important in this process that we stay open to other solutions that could meet the criteria," said Chris Minnich, the executive director of the CCSSO, which co-led the common-standards initiative.
Vol. 33, Issue 37, Pages 1, 22-23Published in Print: August 6, 2014, as U.S. Testing Reviews To Enter New Phase
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|Part of a series on
General conceptions
In particular religions
Pantheism is the belief that the universe (or nature as the totality of everything) is identical with divinity,[1] or that everything composes an all-encompassing, immanent God.[2] Pantheists thus do not believe in a distinct personal or anthropomorphic god.[3] Some Eastern religions are considered to be pantheistically inclined.
Pantheism was popularised in the West as both a theology and philosophy based on the work of the 17th-century philosopher Baruch Spinoza,[4]:p.7 whose book Ethics was an answer to Descartes' famous dualist theory that the body and spirit are separate.[5] Spinoza held the monist view that the two are the same, and monism is a fundamental part of his philosophy. He was described as a "God-intoxicated man," and used the word God to describe the unity of all substance.[5] Although the term pantheism was not coined until after his death, Spinoza is regarded as its most celebrated advocate.[6]
- Definitions 1
History 2
- Recent developments 2.1
Categorizations 3
- Degree of determinism 3.1
- Degree of belief 3.2
- Other 3.3
Pantheism in religion 4
- Hinduism 4.1
- Taoism 4.2
- Organizations 4.3
- Related concepts 5
- See also 6
- Footnotes 7
- Further reading 8
- External links 9
Pantheism is derived from the Greek πᾶν pan (meaning "all") and Θεός Theos (meaning "God"). There are a variety of definitions of pantheism. Some consider it a theological and philosophical position concerning God.[4]:p.8
As a religious position, some describe pantheism as the polar opposite of atheism.[5] From this standpoint, pantheism is the view that everything is part of an all-encompassing, immanent God.[2] All forms of reality may then be considered either modes of that Being, or identical with it.[7] Others hold that pantheism is a non-religious philosophical position. To them, pantheism is the view that the Universe and God are identical.[8]
The first known use of the term pantheism was by the English mathematician Joseph Raphson in his work De spatio reali, written in Latin and published in 1697.[9] In De spatio reali, Raphson begins with a distinction between atheistic 'panhylists' (from the Greek roots pan, "all", and hyle, "matter"), who believe everything is matter, and 'pantheists' who believe in "a certain universal substance, material as well as intelligent, that fashions all things that exist out of its own essence."[10] [11] Raphson found the universe to be immeasurable in respect to a human's capacity of understanding, and believed that humans would never be able to comprehend it.[12]
The Catholic church regarded pantheistic ideas as heresy.[13] Giordano Bruno, an Italian monk who evangelized about an immanent and infinite God, was burned at the stake in 1600 by the Catholic Church. He has since become known as a celebrated pantheist and martyr of science.[14] Bruno influenced many later thinkers including Baruch Spinoza, whose Ethics, finished in 1675, was the major source from which pantheism spread.[15]
The term was borrowed and first used in English by the Irish writer John Toland in his work of 1705 Socinianism Truly Stated, by a pantheist. Toland was influenced by both Spinoza and Bruno, and used the terms 'pantheist' and 'Spinozist' interchangeably.[16] In 1720 he wrote the Pantheisticon: or The Form of Celebrating the Socratic-Society in Latin, envisioning a pantheist society which believed, "all things in the world are one, and one is all in all things ... what is all in all things is God, eternal and immense, neither born nor ever to perish."[17][18] He clarified his idea of pantheism in a letter to Gottfried Leibniz in 1710 when he referred to "the pantheistic opinion of those who believe in no other eternal being but the universe".[19][20][21]
Although the term "pantheism" did not exist before the 17th century, various pre-Christian religions and philosophies can be regarded as pantheistic. Pantheism is similar to the ancient Hindu philosophy of Advaita (non-dualism) to the extent that the 19th-century German Sanskritist Theodore Goldstücker remarked that Spinoza's thought was "... a western system of philosophy which occupies a foremost rank amongst the philosophies of all nations and ages, and which is so exact a representation of the ideas of the Vedanta, that we might have suspected its founder to have borrowed the fundamental principles of his system from the Hindus."[22]
Others include some of the Presocratics, such as Heraclitus and Anaximander.[23] The Stoics were pantheists, beginning with Zeno of Citium and culminating in the emperor-philosopher Marcus Aurelius. During the pre-Christian Roman Empire, Stoicism was one of the three dominant schools of philosophy, along with Epicureanism and Neoplatonism.[24][25] The early Taoism of Lao Zi and Zhuangzi is also sometimes considered pantheistic.[21]
In 1785, a major controversy about Spinoza's philosophy between Friedrich Jacobi, a critic, and Moses Mendelssohn, a defender, known in German as the Pantheismus-Streit, helped to spread pantheism to many German thinkers in the late 18th and 19th centuries.[27]
For a time during the 19th century pantheism was the theological viewpoint of many leading writers and philosophers, attracting figures such as Walt Whitman, Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau in the United States. Seen as a growing threat by the Vatican, it came under attack 1862 in the Syllabus of Errors of Pius IX.[28]
In the mid-eighteenth century, the English theologian Daniel Waterland defined pantheism as: "It supposes God and nature, or God and the whole universe, to be one and the same substance—one universal being; insomuch that men's souls are only modifications of the divine substance."[29][30] In the early nineteenth century, the German theologian Julius Wegscheider defined pantheism as the belief that God and the world established by God are one and the same.[29][31]
In the late 20th century, pantheism was often declared to be the underlying theology of
- Pantheism entry by William Mander in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
- Pantheism entry by Michael Levine (earlier article on pantheism in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)
- Pantheism at DMOZ
- The Pantheist Index, pantheist-index.net
- An Introduction to Pantheism (wku.edu)
- The Universal Pantheist Society (pantheist.net)
- The World Pantheist Movement (pantheism.net)
- Pantheism and Judaism (chabad.org)
External links
- Amryc, C. Pantheism: The Light and Hope of Modern Reason, 1898. online
- Harrison, Paul, Elements of Pantheism, Element Press, 1999. preview
- Hunt, John, Pantheism and Christianity, William Isbister Limited, 1884. online
- Levine, Michael, Pantheism: A Non-Theistic Concept of Deity, Psychology Press, 1994, ISBN 9780415070645
- Picton, James Allanson, Pantheism: Its story and significance, Archibald Constable & Co., 1905. online.
- Plumptre, Constance E., General Sketch of the History of Pantheism, Cambridge University Press, 2011 (reprint, originally published 1879), ISBN 9781108028028 online
- Russell, Sharman Apt, Standing in the Light: My Life as a Pantheist, Basic Books, 2008, ISBN 0465005179
- Urquhart, W. S. Pantheism and the Value of Life, 1919. online
Further reading
- ^ The New Oxford Dictionary Of English. Oxford: Clarendon Press. 1998. p. 1341.
- ^ a b Encyclopedia of Philosophy ed. Paul Edwards. New York: Macmillan and Free Press. 1967. p. 34.
- ^ A Companion to Philosophy of Religion edited by Charles Taliaferro, Paul Draper, Philip L. Quinn, p.340 "They deny that God is "totally other" than the world or ontologically distinct from it."
- ^ a b c Picton, James Allanson (1905). Pantheism: its story and significance. Chicago: Archibald Constable & CO LTD.
- ^ a b c d Plumptre, Constance (1879). General sketch of the history of pantheism, Volume 2. London: Samuel Deacon and Co. pp. 3–5, 8, 29.
- ^ Shoham, Schlomo Giora (2010). To Test the Limits of Our Endurance. Cambridge Scholars. p. 111.
- ^ Owen, H. P. Concepts of Deity. London: Macmillan, 1971, p. 65.
- ^ The New Oxford Dictionary Of English. Oxford: Clarendon Press. 1998. p. 1341.
- ^ Ann Thomson; Bodies of Thought: Science, Religion, and the Soul in the Early Enlightenment, 2008, page 54.
- ^ Raphson, Joseph (1697). De spatio reali (in Latin). Londini. p. 2.
- ^ Suttle, Gary. "Joseph Raphson: 1648–1715". Pantheist Association for Nature. Retrieved 7 September 2012.
- ^ Koyré, Alexander (1957). From the Closed World to the Infinite Universe. Baltimore, Md.: Johns Hopkins Press. pp. 190–204.
- ^ Collinge, William, Historical Dictionary of Catholicism, Scarecrow Press, 2012, p 188, ISBN 9780810879799.
- ^ McIntyre, James Lewis, Giordano Bruno, Macmillan, 1903, p 316.
- ^ Genevieve Lloyd, Routledge Philosophy GuideBook to Spinoza and The Ethics (Routledge Philosophy Guidebooks), Routledge; 1 edition (2 October 1996), ISBN 978-0-415-10782-2, Page: 24
- ^ R.E. Sullivan, "John Toland and the Deist controversy: A Study in Adaptations", Harvard University Press, 1982, p. 193
- ^ Harrison, Paul. "Toland: The father of modern pantheism". Pantheist History. World Pantheist Movement. Retrieved 5 September 2012.
- ^ Toland, John, Pantheisticon, 1720; reprint of the 1751 edition, New York and London: Garland, 1976, p 54
- ^ Honderich, Ted, The Oxford Companion to Philosophy, Oxford University Press, 1995, p.641: "First used by John Toland in 1705, the term 'pantheist' designates one who holds both that everything there is constitutes a unity and that this unity is divine."
- ^ Thompson, Ann, Bodies of Thought: Science, Religion, and the Soul in the Early Enlightenment, Oxford University Press, 2008, p 133, ISBN 9780199236190
- ^ a b c Paul Harrison, Elements of Pantheism, 1999.
- ^ Literary Remains of the Late Professor Theodore Goldstucker, W. H. Allen, 1879. p32.
- ^ Thilly, Frank, "Pantheism", in Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics, Part 18, Hastings, James (Ed.), Kessinger Publishing, 2003 (reprint, originally published 1908), p 614, ISBN 9780766136953.
- ^ Armstrong, AH (1967). The Cambridge History of Later Greek and Early Medieval Philosophy. Cambridge University Press. pp. 57, 60, 161, 186, 222.
- ^ McLynn, Frank (2010). Marcus Aurelius: A Life. Da Capo Press. p. 232.
- ^ *Fraser, Alexander Campbell "Philosophy of Theism", William Blackwood and Sons, 1895, p 163.
- ^ Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi, in (plato.stanford.edu)Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
- ^ Syllabus of Errors 1.1 (papalencyclicals.net).
- ^ a b c Worman, J. H., "Pantheism", in Cyclopædia of Biblical, Theological, and Ecclesiastical Literature, Volume 1, John McClintock, James Strong (Eds), Harper & Brothers, 1896, pp 616–624.
- ^ Worman cites Waterland, Works, viii, p 81.
- ^ Worman cites Wegscheider, Inst 57, p 250.
- ^ Margot Adler, Drawing Down the Moon, Beacon Press, 1986.
- ^ "Belief in God a 'product of human weaknesses': Einstein letter". CBC Canada. 2008-05-13. Retrieved 2011-08-31.
- ^ a b Caritas In Veritate, 7 July 2009.
- ^ "Message of His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI For The Celebration Of The World Day Of Peace".
- ^ Heaven and Nature, Ross Douthat, New York Times, 20 December 2009
- ^ a b Herndon, William (4 February 1866). "Sold – Herndon's Revelations on Lincoln's Religion" (Excerpt and review). Raab Collection. Retrieved 5 June 2012.
- ^ a b Adams, Guy (17 April 2011). Pantheist' Lincoln would be unelectable today"'". The Independent (Los Angeles). Retrieved 5 June 2012.
- ^ Levine, Michael. "Pantheism". The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
- ^ Charles Hartshorne and William Reese, ed. (1953). Philosophers Speak of God. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. pp. 165–210.
- ^ Goldsmith, Donald; Marcia Bartusiak (2006). E = Einstein: His Life, His Thought, and His Influence on Our Culture. New York: Stirling Publishing. p. 187.
- ^ F.C. Copleston, "Pantheism in Spinoza and the German Idealists," Philosophy 21, 1946, p. 48
- ^ Literary and Philosophical Society of Liverpool, "Proceedings of the Liverpool Literary & Philosophical Society, Volumes 43–44", 1889, p 285
- ^ John Ferguson, "The Religions of the Roman Empire", Cornell University Press, 1970, p 193
- ^ Isaacson, Walter (2007). Einstein: His Life and Universe. Simon and Schuster. p. 391. p. 391 "I am a determinist"
- ^ Lindsay Jones, ed. (2005). Encyclopedia of Religion: Volume 10 (2nd ed.). USA: MacMillan.
^ Dependence and Freedom: The Moral Thought of Horace Bushnell By David Wayne Haddorff [1] Emerson's belief was "monistic determinism".
- Creatures of Prometheus: Gender and the Politics of Technology By Timothy Vance Kaufman-Osborn, Prometheus ((Writer)) [2] "Things are in a saddle, and ride mankind."
- Emerson's position is "soft determinism" (a variant of determinism) [3]
- "The 'fate' Emerson identifies is an underlying determinism." (Fate is one of Emerson's essays) [4]
^ "Hegel was a determinist" (also called a combatibilist a.k.a. soft determinist) [5]
- "Hegel and Marx are usually cited as the greatest proponents of historical determinism" [6]
- ^ Levine, Michael P. (August 1992). "Pantheism, substance and unity". International Journal for Philosophy of Religion 32: 1–23.
- Theories of the will in the history of philosophy By Archibald Alexander p 307 Schelling holds "that the will is not determined but self-determined." [7]
- The Dynamic Individualism of William James by James O. Pawelski p 17 "[His] fight against determinism" "My first act of free will shall be to believe in free will." [8]
- ^ "Pantheism". The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. Columbia University Press. 2012. Retrieved 13 June 2012.
- ^ Evangelical Dictionary of Theology, edited by Walter A. Elwell, p. 887
- ^ a b c Levine, Michael Philip (1994). Pantheism: A Non-Theistic Concept of Deity.
- ^ Harrison, Paul. "The origins of Christian pantheism". Pantheist history. World Pantheists Movement. Retrieved 20 September 2012.
- ^ Fox, Michael W. "Christianity and Pantheism". Universal Pantheist Society. Retrieved 20 September 2012.
- ^ Zaleha, Bernard. "Recovering Christian Pantheism as the Lost Gospel of Creation". Fund for Christian Ecology, Inc. Retrieved 20 September 2012.
- ^ Parrinder, EG (1970). "Monotheism and Pantheism in Africa". Journal of Religion in Africa 3: 81–88.
- ^ Harrison, Paul. "North American Indians: the spirituality of nature". World Pantheist Movement. Retrieved 7 September 2012.
- ^ Carpenter, Dennis D. (1996). "Emergent Nature Spirituality: An Examination of the Major Spiritual Contours of the Contemporary Pagan Worldview". In Lewis, James R.. Magical Religion and Modern Witchcraft. Albany: State University of New York Press. ISBN 978-0-7914-2890-0. p 50
- ^ Vivekananda, 1987
- ^ Bhaskarananda, Swami (1994), The Essentials of Hinduism: a comprehensive overview of the world's oldest religion, Seattle, WA: Viveka Press, ISBN 1-884852-02-5
- ^ "A Survey of Hinduism: First Edition", by Klaus K. Klostermaier, p. 201
- ^ "Hindu Literature: Or the Ancient Books of India", P.115, by Elizabeth A. Reed
- ^ Chuang Tzu – The butterfly philosopher (pantheism.net).
- ^ "Home page". Universal Pantheist Society. Retrieved 8 August 2012.
- ^ World Pantheist Movement. "Naturalism and Religion: can there be a naturalistic & scientific spirituality?". Retrieved 4 September 2012.
- ^ Stone, Jerome Arthur (2008). Religious Naturalism Today: The Rebirth of a Forgotten Alternative. Albany: State University of New York Press. p. 10.
- ^ Bron Raymond Taylor, "Dark Green Religion: Nature Spirituality and the Planetary Future", University of California Press 2010, pp 159–160.
^ Levine, Michael, Pantheism: A Non-Theistic Concept of Deity, Psychology Press, 1994, ISBN 9780415070645, pgs 44, 274-275.
- "The idea that Unity that is rooted in nature is what types of nature mysticism (e.g. Wordsworth and Robinson Jeffers, Gary Snyder) have in common with more philosophically robust versions of pantheism. It is why nature mysticism and philosophical pantheism are often conflated and confused for one another."
- "[Wood's] pantheism is distant from Spinoza's identification of God with nature, and much closer to nature mysticism. In fact it is nature mysticism
- "Nature mysticism, however, is as compatible with theism as it is with pantheism."
- "Surely what Wood understands by "nature," its value etc., is vastly different from "nature" as seen by the natural sciences."
- ^ a b John W. Cooper, The Other God of the Philosophers, Baker Academic, 2006
- ^ Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy: Genealogy to Iqbal edited by Edward Craig, pg 100 [9].
- ^ Sean F. Johnston (2009). The History of Science: A Beginner's Guide. p. 90.
^ Seager, William and Allen-Hermanson, Sean, "Panpsychism", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Winter 2012 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), URL =
- ^ Haught, John F. (1990). What Is Religion?: An Introduction. Paulist Press. p. 19.
- List of pantheists
- Monism
- Classical pantheism
- Naturalistic pantheism
- Theopanism, a term which is philosophically distinct but derived from the same root words
- Panentheism
See also
Panpsychism is the philosophical view held by many pantheists that consciousness, mind, or soul is a universal feature of all things.[73] Some pantheists also subscribe to the distinct philosophical views hylozoism (or panvitalism), the view that everything is alive, and its close neighbor animism, the view that everything has a soul or spirit.[74]
Pandeism is another word derived from pantheism and is characterized as a combination of reconcilable elements of pantheism and deism.[72] It assumes a Creator-deity which is at some point distinct from the universe and then merges with it, resulting in a universe similar to the pantheistic one in present essence, but differing in origin.
Panentheism (from Greek πᾶν (pân) "all"; ἐν (en) "in"; and θεός (theós) "God"; "all-in-God") was formally coined in Germany in the 19th century in an attempt to offer a philosophical synthesis between traditional theism and pantheism, stating that God is substantially omnipresent in the physical universe but also exists "apart from" or "beyond" it as its Creator and Sustainer.[70]:p.27 Thus panentheism separates itself from pantheism, positing the extra claim that God exists above and beyond the world as we know it.[53]:p.11 The line between pantheism and panentheism can be blurred depending on varying definitions of God, so there have been disagreements when assigning particular notable figures to pantheism or panentheism.[70]:pp. 71–72, 87–88, 105[71]
Nature worship or nature mysticism is often conflated and confused with pantheism. It is pointed out by at least one expert in pantheist philosophy that Spinoza's identification of God with nature is very different from a recent idea of a self identifying pantheist with environmental ethical concerns, Harold Wood, founder of the Universal Pantheist Society. His use of the word nature to describe his worldview is suggested to be vastly different from the "nature" of modern sciences. He and other nature mystics who also identify as pantheists use "nature" to refer to the limited natural environment (as opposed to man-made built environment). This use of "nature" is different from the broader use from Spinoza and other pantheists describing natural laws and the overall phenomena of the physical world. Nature mysticism may be compatible with pantheism but it may also be compatible with theism and other views.[69]
Related concepts
Two organizations that specify the word pantheism in their title formed in the last quarter of the 20th century. The Universal Pantheist Society, open to all varieties of pantheists and supportive of environmental causes, was founded in 1975.[65] The World Pantheist Movement is headed by Paul Harrison, an environmentalist, writer and a former vice president of the Universal Pantheist Society, from which he resigned in 1996. The World Pantheist Movement was incorporated in 1999 to focus exclusively on promoting a strict metaphysical naturalistic version of pantheism,[66] considered by some a form of religious naturalism.[67] It has been described as an example of "dark green religion" with a focus on environmental ethics.[68]
In the tradition of its leading thinkers Lao Tzu and Zhuangzi, Taoism is comparable with pantheism, as the Tao is always spoken of with profound religious reverence and respect, similar to the way that pantheism discusses the "God" that is everything. The Tao te Ching never speaks of a transcendent God, but of a mysterious and numinous ground of being underlying all things. Zhuangzi emphasized the pantheistic content of Taoism even more clearly: "Heaven and I were created together, and all things and I are one." When Tung Kuo Tzu asked Zhuangzi where the Tao was, he replied that it was in the ant, the grass, the clay tile, even in excrement: "There is nowhere where it is not… There is not a single thing without Tao."[64]
The branches of Hinduism teaching forms of pantheism are known as non-dualist schools.[61] All Mahāvākyas (Great Sayings) of the Upanishads, in one way or another, seem to indicate the unity of the world with the Brahman.[62] It further says, "This whole universe is Brahman, from Brahman to a clod of earth."[63]
It is generally regarded that Hindu religious texts are the oldest known literature containing pantheistic ideas.[5] The Advaita Vedanta school of Hinduism teaches that the Atman (true self; human soul) is indistinct from Brahman (the unknown reality of everything).[60]
Philosopher Michael Levine has said that there may be more pantheists than theists worldwide.[53]:p.14 There are elements of pantheism in some forms of Christianity,[54][55][56] Islam (Sufism), Buddhism, Judaism, Gnosticism, Neopaganism, and Theosophy as well as in several tendencies in many theistic religions. The Islamic religious tradition, in particular Sufism and Alevism, has a strong belief in the unitary nature of the universe and the concept that everything in it is an aspect of God itself, although their perspective, like many traditional perspectives, may lean closer to panentheism. Many other traditional and folk religions including African traditional religions[57] and Native American religions[53]:p.67[58] can be seen as pantheistic, or a mixture of pantheism and other doctrines such as polytheism and animism. A variety of modern paganists also hold pantheistic views.[59]
Pantheism in religion
More recently, Paul D. Feinberg, professor of biblical and systematic theology at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, also identified seven categories of pantheism: Hylozoistic; Immanentistic; Absolutistic monistic; Relativistic monistic; Acosmic; Identity of opposites; and Neoplatonic or emanationistic.[52]
In 1896, J. H. Worman, a theologian, identified seven categories of pantheism: Mechanical or materialistic (God the mechanical unity of existence); Ontological (fundamental unity, Spinoza); Dynamic; Psychical (God is the soul of the world); Ethical (God is the universal moral order, Johann Gottlieb Fichte); Logical (Hegel); and Pure (absorption of God into nature, which Worman equates with atheism).[29]
Religious inclined pantheisms include some forms of Hinduism while philosophical inclined pantheisms include Stoicism.
- "If the pantheist starts with the belief that the one great reality, eternal and infinite, is God, he sees everything finite and temporal as but some part of God. There is nothing separate or distinct from God, for God is the universe. If, on the other hand, the conception taken as the foundation of the system is that the great inclusive unity is the world itself, or the universe, God is swallowed up in that unity, which may be designated nature."[51]
It may also be possible to distinguish two types of pantheism, one being more religious and the other being more philosophical. The Columbia Encyclopedia writes of the distinction:
Degree of belief
However, some have argued against treating every meaning of "unity" as an aspect of pantheism,[49] and there exist versions of pantheism that regard determinism as an inaccurate or incomplete view of nature. Examples include the beliefs of Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling and William James.[50]
[48] The American philosopher
Degree of determinism
There are multiple varieties of pantheism[39]:3 which have been placed along various spectra or in discrete categories.
The subject is understandably controversial, but the contents of the letter is consistent with Lincoln's fairly lukewarm approach to organized religion.[38]
"Mr. Lincoln's religion is too well known to me to allow of even a shadow of a doubt; he is or was a Theist and a Rationalist, denying all extraordinary – supernatural inspiration or revelation. At one time in his life, to say the least, he was an elevated Pantheist, doubting the immortality of the soul as the Christian world understands that term. He believed that the soul lost its identity and was immortal as a force. Subsequent to this he rose to the belief of a God, and this is all the change he ever underwent."[37][38]
In 2011, a letter written in 1886 by William Herndon, Abraham Lincoln's law partner, was sold at auction for US$30,000.[37] In it, Herndon writes of the U.S. President's evolving religious views, which included pantheism.
Pantheism is mentioned in a Papal encyclical in 2009[34] and a statement on New Year's Day in 2010,[35] criticizing pantheism for denying the superiority of humans over nature and "seeing the source of man 's salvation in nature".[34] In a review of the 2009 film Avatar, Ross Douthat, an author, described pantheism as "Hollywood's religion of choice for a generation now".[36]
In 2008, one of Albert Einstein's letters, written in 1954 in German, in which he dismissed belief in a personal God, was sold at auction for more than US$330,000. Einstein wrote, "We followers of Spinoza see our God in the wonderful order and lawfulness of all that exists and in its soul ["Beseeltheit"] as it reveals itself in man and animal," in a letter to Eduard Büsching (25 October 1929) after Büsching sent Einstein a copy of his book Es gibt keinen Gott. Einstein responded that the book only dealt with the concept of a personal God and not the impersonal God of pantheism. "I do not believe in a personal God and I have never denied this but have expressed it clearly," he wrote in another letter in 1954.[33]
Recent developments


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1. Which of your characters is your favorite?
2. Tell me about your travels.
I'd love to travel more--who wouldn't? My favorite places visited so far include San Francisco, Oregon, Chicago, Boston, Destin FL, Hawaii--I just love any destination with a beach. My biggest delight in terms of accidental vacation adventures happened when I was planning an ocean-side camping trip to South Carolina. A hurricane blew in, and the only beach within a day's drive from my Southern Indiana home was on Lake Michigan. Sheboygan, Wisconsin! Kohler-Andrae State Park remains the most beautiful state park I've ever visited, with a scenic beach walk and the cleanest, most spacious campground I've ever seen. The people of Sheboygan were so friendly, too--they even gave us an impromptu VIP tour to one of their factories: Wigwam Socks. It was a hoot. Someday I hope to go back.
3. Coffee, tea, or milk?
Oh, boy. Does anyone ever choose milk? I drink coffee every day. I used to be more into tea, and my husband into coffee, but somehow we flip-flopped!
4. What else can you do besides write?
I am a multidimensional human being. I'm a decent photographer, I teach, I used to act...but mainly I am just your typical force-of-nature mother of four homeschooling work-at-home mom.
5. Who are you reading right now?
Several books on parenting gifted children, and novels by Ash Krafton and Eric Garrison. A graphic novel by Audrey Niffenegger, and I'm using an Illustrated Classics edition of Cooper's Last of the Mohicans as a found poetry art project. So much more. I also have a "to be read" queue a mile long. I missing my reading time!
6. Pop culture or academia?
7. What is the toughest scene you ever wrote?
8. Where do you find your inspirations to write?
9. Food you could eat everyday.
Chocolate, and I do. Which is why I'm so fat.
I used to play roller derby for Derby City Rollergirls, but since I retired from derby I'm more into watching the kids play soccer or football than doing it, myself. Looking into teaching roller derby classes, though (google "Derby Lite" to see what I mean), so it's possible I'll be skating again soon!
11. What kind of music speaks to you?
12. Do you outline your stories or do they just take you along for the ride?
13. Celebrity crush.
14. Who are the biggest influences on your work?
15. Do you still watch cartoons?
Red Tash is a journalist-turned-novelist of dark fantasy for readers of all ages. Monsters, SciFi, wizards, trolls, fairies, and roller derby lightly sautéed in a Southern/Midwestern sauce hand-canned from her mama's recipes await you in her pantry of readerly delights. Y'all come, anytime.
Find Red online at these links:
WEBSITE - http://redtash.com/
- http://www.facebook.com/RedTashBooks
- http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5153812.Red_Tash
- https://plus.google.com/103481304245044255869/posts
- @RedTashBooks - https://twitter.com/RedTashBooks
DESCRIPTION FOR Troll or Derby:
In Troll Or Derby, fifteen-year-old Roller Deb is singled out by town bullies for both her skates, and for being different. When her popular homecoming queen of a sister is kidnapped by a scuzzy drug dealer, Deb must flee the trailer park in which she's grown up, and rescue her. Along the way, Deb becomes enmeshed in the magical realm of trolls and fairies, and the blood-thirsty version of roller derby at which these beings excel. But spending too much time among the fairies comes with a price. Will Deb choose to save her sister, with the aid of a mysterious troll? Or will she be lost to the lures of roller derby, and the blonde temptress April, forever?
- http://www.amazon.com/Troll-Or-Derby-ebook/dp/B008BMUKMC


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I'm guessing they will due Brazil because of the World Cup next year. And maybe they can do some sort of task relating to Confederations Cup which starts Saturday.
A couple of thoughts to keep in mind, based on past seasons:If there's one flight headed to Dallas as a connector there's often a second flight that connects via Miami if the teams are headed to South America.
Domestic? Why? It's my understanding that everytime the race comes to SouthAmerica they do in on summer. Corect me if i'm wrong but this may be the first time for a winter visit, and if that is the case, I see 2 possibilities:1 From Santiago they would go to the ski resorts in the andes (just a couple of hours away), as we are in snow season. I can't think of any other place in Chile that couldn't be visited during summer.2 Then, somehow, going to MacchuPicchu or the andean Bolivia. The weather in summer in those places makes them hard to visit, while winter is pleasent.
My understanding is that Chateau got confirmation of Chile through the money exchange at LAX.
I also speculate there's gonna be only one leg in Chile. They usually only spent one leg in first destination in odd-numbered seasons.
Where was the starting line?
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Few countries do the Big Outdoors like the Middle Kingdom. Take your pick from the sublime sapphire lakes of Tibet or the impassive deserts of Inner Mongolia or hike the Great Wall as it meanders across mountain peaks. China seems to have it all.
Upon arrival at the international airport, you will meet our representative and be transferred to your hotel. In the evening, proceed for an optional tour of the Huangpu river cruise.
Includes dinner
After breakfast, we shall prceed on a city tour of Shanghai
Includes breakfast and dinner
After breakfast, you shall check-out and be transferred to the train station. You will take the train to Beijing. Once there, you will meet our representative and be transferred to your hotel. In the evening, proceed for an optional tour of the Acrobatic Show.
Includes breakfast and dinner
After breakfast, we shall proceed for a city tour of Beijing.
Includes breakfast dinner
After breakfast, we shall proceed for a full day tour to Great Wall of China.
After breakfast, you will check-out from your hotel and will be transfer to the airport for your flight back home. Bon voyage!
Includes breakfast
*Rates are subject to availability. Above is just a quote, no booking made yet. Prices include return economy fares. Additional options are available upon request. Cost of visa and travel insurance are not included. Peak season surcharges may apply on some dates. The itinerary is subject to change/swap without any prior notice. The third person sharing the room is provided with an additional mattress or a roll away. There will not be any refund for any unutilised service or sightseeing. In case of unavailability in mentioned hotels, alternate accommodation will be arranged in a similar category hotel. Any meals and services, unless mentioned in the itinerary, are not included. You are fully responsible for verifying and obtaining the documents required for your trip and visa. Please Note: Standard check-in to the hotel is 1400/1500 hours & check-out is always 1100/1200 Hours. Early check-in and late check-out are subject to availability. All photos and videos shown are illustrative. Actual services may differ. Terms apply.
*Refunds will be based on how many days prior to your booked departure we receive your cancellation notice, with the charges increasing closer to your departure date. If the cancellation is received prior to 45 days or more of departure, full price of the non-refundable tickets will be deducted; 44 - 31 days prior to departure, 25% of the total amount will be deducted; if the holiday is cancelled 30 - 15 days prior to departure 50% of the total amount will be deducted; if the trip is cancelled 14 - 10 days prior to departure, 75% of the total amount will be deducted; and if the trip is cancelled 10 days prior to departure, 100% of the total amount will be deducted. In case of non-refundable tickets, the entire amount of the ticket will be deducted.
Adult from AED* 4,499
Pre-book this holiday AED* 500
A fun crab hunting experience
An exciting getaway
Free access to Emirates Park Zoo
Enjoy an extravagant staycation
A marvelous Stay-cay


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In the past, I've worked hard to put a sketch in every single book sold to every single reader. It's been great to get e-mails from folks saying how cool their sketch was, and how cherished it is in their house. But the number of sold Sheldon books is starting to exceed my abilitiy to keep up with that extra workload of sketches. And I hate the idea that, as this workload increases, some folks would randomly GET a sketch, and some folks randomly WOULDN'T. So going forward, I'm going to handle sketched-in books a different way. Starting with "The Good, The Bad and The Pugly", I'm going to limit the number of sketched-in books to a very select group of "Artist's Editions".
For "The Good, The Bad, & The Pugly", there will only be 250 of these special editions. They will be stamped, hand-numbered, autographed, and will feature a unique-to-your-book, original sketch. And once they're sold out, that's it. You won't be able to get a sketch in your Pugly book when you buy online.
Sheldon Newsletter Subscribers got first crack at ordering these 250 books, starting late Monday night. But on Thursday night, Artist's Editions will be opened up for sale to everyone else. I have no idea how fast these 250 copies will go, but I do know this: if you were sent the special link via the Sheldon newsletter...don't wait. Order your copy today.
And remember: these pre-ordered Artist's Editions will be the first shipped out when the books arrive Dec. 1st!
Just in case you have questions, here are a few I've tried to anticipate:
1.) Will Artist's Editions be worth more over time?
That's the hope. In limiting the amount of books with sketches in them, I hope to increase the value of the Artist's Edition that you own.
2.) Will Artist's Editions cost more?
Yes: they'll cost an additional $10 for the additional time, effort, and value. Also keep in mind: you're helping to keep the lights on at Sheldon with your support!
3.) If the 250 copies run out before I can get mine, is there really no chance of getting an Artist's Edition from the Sheldon Store later?
Not from the Sheldon store. You may be able to pick one up from an online auction site down the line, of course.
4.) C'mon...please?? It's my cousin's birthday/wedding/Bar Mitzvah/graduation! You really won't put a sketch in my copy of "The Good, The Bad and The Pugly"?
Nope. You'll never again have the opportunity to get a sketch in your online order. Your only chance for a sketch, once these are sold out, is to catch me in person at a future appearance, where I'll put un-numbered sketches in books.
5.) Will you still be *signing* books sold online?
I'll happily continue to sign every single book sold in the Sheldon store. It's the least I can do to say thank you for supporting Sheldon! But sketches will only be available online in the limited Artist's Editions.
6.) Can I pick what will be sketched in my Artist's Edition? Can you sign it to so-and-so?
Due to the logistics of 250 sketches mailing out to 250 people, I'm afraid not.
7.) With these Artist's Editions, does this mean you're no longer putting sketches in copies of Pure Ducky Goodness that are bought online?
Yes. But there will be one more window of opportunity in January for Pure Ducky Goodness buyers. For folks that haven't yet bought a copy, there'll be a limited opportunity to get an Artist's Edition PDG.
To summarize: I really want to make these limited Artist's Editions something you'll treasure, and something that's of increased value. So if you were aching for a sketch in your book, order your signed and sketched "Artist's Edition" now!
Have more questions? Ask them HERE. Thanks!


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What have the poleriders been up to:
a little polo at the Los Marcos Melee Photo thanks to: hardcourtbikepolo.com
Then, last weekend at the Big Apple Comic Con.
They'll be gearing up the Village Voice Halloween Parade.
Speaking of Pedicabs (the one's without erotic dancers on them) there was a recent […]


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Anti-Papa Politics
It was his ambition to be an oriental philosopher; but he was always a very Yankee sort of oriental. Even in the peculiar attitude in which he stood to money, his system of personal economics, as we may call it, he displayed a vast amount of truly down-East calculation, and he adopted poverty like a piece of business.
—R.L. Stevenson, of Thoreau*
We had been talking about E.F. Schumacher, the author of Small Is Beautiful. "You'll be interested to know he is a convert." Pause. I didn't get it. "Convert from what to what?" I asked. "He's a Catholic." Then I got it. He was talking in code, and did not know that particular code is no longer in use.
Perhaps I should have caught on. We had, after all, been talking about our Jesuit seminary days, back in the Fifties. We had remembered prayers "for the conversion of Russia," said after every Mass. Conversion meant one thing then—acceptance of the one Church. But I had just come from a series of meetings where conversion was a hot topic, and the conversions involved were those of Jimmy Carter and Charles Colson. Besides, the people I go to Mass with do not use "convert" in the way Jerry Brown still does. It takes a dropout from the Church to talk in outmoded ways without knowing it.
He knows, to be sure, that much of what he liked in the old Church is gone. "Not eating meat on Friday was like Jews wearing the yarmulka—it gave one a sense of tradition. All the binding symbols are disappearing. Even the Trappists—I used to go to their monastery, but now they can talk, and eat any time of the day, and even watch television." So Brown prefers to "hide out" at Richard Baker's Zen center, where the life is more selfconsciously disciplined, structured, drilled. Some think Brown is interested in the East because of a taste for mysticism. They forget that the political leaders who most intrigue him are Mao Tse-tung and Ho Chi Minh. It is the ability to organize a people to puritanical effort and standards that he admires. He reduces Eastern mystery to seminary slogans: Age quod agis—the least mystical of Western spiritualities.
Brown rarely goes to Mass any more—though some friends have urged him to "hit the communion rail" as a way of retaining ethnic support. He had the Sufi Choir perform at his gubernatorial prayer breakfast. Last Easter, he tried to find a Latin Mass he could attend, but the only group offering one was schismatic—right-wing diehards separated from Church authority. It was too risky politically, even for a dabbler in Sufi liturgies.
Brown seems to remember with fondness only the hard things of religion, the external discipline. His preferred rite would be all Ash Wednesday, with no Easter. There are men with a positive taste for selfdenial. Thoreau was one. Emerson said he found Thoreau always readier to say no than yes. Stevenson,…
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text:
Silver-Nano has again reiterated their goal of contributing to the fight against the coronavirus pandemic with the addition of new Antibacterial Reusable Face Masks to their online store which are available for worldwide shipping. The recently added face masks are made from 76% Natural Silver AntiVtex fabric, which is exclusive to Silver-Nano. The masks are certified with Cat-1 Personal protective equipment as per regulations (EU) 2016/425 of (PPE) and harmonised standard FFP1, FFP2, FFP3, offering maximum protection to users.
The recently added Antibacterial Reusable masks are washable and reusable for 260 washes, ensuring durability and helping users to save on the cost of making several purchases to stay safe. The masks are suitable for everyday use and are available in two sizes for adults and kids. With well-fitted ear strap and soft firm nose strap ergonomic design, the ultra-soft, breathable lightweight masks are designed to ensure comfort.
Face masks are particularly recommended as wearing them helps to reduce the risk of contracting the virus from droplets of infected persons. It also ensures that people do not touch their face as often, consequently reducing the risk of bringing the virus into the body. However, many of the available face coverings and masks do not meet the requirements to keep users safe from contracting COVID-19 or any other dangerous virus. This is where Silver-Nano has been of immense help with their range of reusable antibacterial face masks.
The Natural Silver ion properties of the masks have a proven long-standing reputation as an effective way to resist and kill more than 650 kinds of harmful bacteria. This feature is particularly unique to Silver Nano's face masks.
The Novel COVID-19 has wreaked a lot of havoc across the globe, with the WHO declaring the virus a pandemic due to its widespread and impact, infecting more than 5 million people. Several measures have been put in place by governments based on the recommendation of health experts to curb the spread of the virus. These include lockdowns and the use of PPEs, especially face masks.
For more information about the recently added RoHS compliant face masks as well as other products from Silver Nano designed to keep the world safe and healthy, please visit – www.silvernanofacemasks.com and Facebook.
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2015 Group 3 Project
Extracellular Matrix 2015 Projects: Group 1 | Group 2 | Group 3 | Group 4 | Group 5 | Group 6 | Group 7
Projects are now locked for final Assessment.
- 1 Elastic Fibres
- 1.1 Introduction
- 1.2 History
- 1.3 Structure and Components
- 1.4 Assembly of Elastic Fibre
- 1.5 Function
- 1.6 Clinical Significance
- 1.7 Future Directions
- 1.8 References
Elastic Fibres
Elastic fibres are an abundant extracellular matrix macromolecule of connective tissues found within the skin, blood vessels, lungs and ligaments. [1] It provides resilience and the mechanical recoil of tissues and organs to repetitively deform and reform to its original shape without compromising structural integrity. This deformability is essential to the functioning of tissues. Its recoiling properties are attributed to the elastin polymer that makes up most of the elastic fibre. [2] The impairment or loss of elastic tissues results in profound pathological implications.
Elastic fibres are complex due to the multitude of components involved in forming the structure of the macromolecule. It involves a hierarchal procedure of assembly with unique biomechanical functions within different tissues. Progress in the research of elastic fibres involves ultrastructural analysis, the study of mouse models and the identification of interacting molecules that will help to increase our understanding of this extracellular matrix component. [3]
We will be discussing the overall structure, components involved, process of assembly, function and the clinical manifestations of elastic fibres.
Elastin was first recognized in the mid 19th century, but due to its high insolubility, it was an extremely difficult protein to study. Substantial progress in the study of elastin was hindered until the soluble precursor, tropoelastin, was discovered in the early 1970s. This sparked significant interest in the study of elastin and elastic fibres. [4] In the late 1970s, Helene Sage and William Gray used histological staining techniques and amino acid composition to identify elastin in arteries of vertebrates. This research was significant towards the progress of study of elastic fibres as the results of this study are still valid today. No elastin has been identified in invertebrates. [5] The Gordon Research Conference on elastin began in 1976, which represented a large international interest group in this area. Due to its success, it has been held every year since, with scientists revealing their studies of the biochemistry, cellular biology, pathology and molecular biology of the protein elastin. [6]
By 1995, the conference name changed from "Elastin" to "Elastin and Elastic Fibres" which highlights that this area of research had extended from the single elastin protein to the entire elastic fibre matrix. This encompassed the discovery of microfibrils and microfibrillar-associated proteins as scientists continued to describe the elastic fibre structure. With the years to follow, this field has continued to expand to discover many other molecules that influence the function, regulation and assembly of elastic fibres that include lysyl oxidases, fibulins, emilins and proteoglycans. [7]
Structure and Components
Elastic fibres play a significant role in the extracellular matrix of cells and the organisation of elastic fibres varies in different tissues. In the lungs, skin and ligaments, elastic fibres are organised in a rope-like manner, in blood vessels it is organised as thin concentric sheets and has a large honeycomb structure in elastic cartilage. Elastic fibres are composed of two significant components; 90% of which is an amorphous core of highly cross-linked elastin protein and the remaining 10% is a fibrillar mantle of microfibrils. [1]
Elastin and Tropoelastin
Elastin is a very insoluble complex structure, being one of the most insoluble proteins of the human body. [3][1] The study of elastin was significantly hindered due to its insolubility. With the discovery of the soluble precursor of elastin, tropoelastin, scientists were able to describe chemical properties of elastin. [8]
Tropoelastin and elastin are made significantly of only four hydrophobic amino acids: glycine, alanine, valine and proline. Mature elastin appears as an amorphous branching structure with extensive cross-linking tropoelastin monomers. An important feature of the composition of pure elastin is the absence of methionine, histidine and tryptophan. [1] Desmosines and its isomer, isodesmosine are formed from the covalent cross-linking of four lysine residues that are unique to elastic fibres and are responsible for the its hydrophobic properties. [3] Lysyl oxidase (LOX) is the enzyme that initiates cross-linking within elastin as it modifies lysine residues to form desmosines and isodesmosine. [9]
Under a light microscope, elastin is typically recognised by its wavy appearance. [1]
During the assembly of elastic fibres, microfibrils function as a scaffold for the deposition of elastin. [10] The microfibrillar region is organised with 10-12nm fibrils that have a beaded appearance that are loosely parked into parallel bundles to form a sheath around the amorphous elastin core. [1] The major structural component of the microfibrils is fibrillins, large rod-like cystine-rich glycoproteins. Three fibrillins have been identified: Fibrillin-1, Fibrillin-2 and Fibrillin-3. Fibrillin-1 has Arg-Gly-Asp sequences that interact with integrins located on the cell surface and is believed to have a role in signalling during elastic fibre assembly. Fibrillin-1 and -2 are responsible for mediating the binding of tropoelastin to the microfibril. It is currently unknown whether Fibrillin-3 is related to elastic fibres. [9]
Microfibrillar Associated Proteins
The outer mantle of fibulin-rich microfibrils has many distinct proteins associated with it. Microfibril associated glycoproteins-1 (MAGP-1) and MAGP-2 and are small glycoproteins proteins that are important for the structural integrity of elastic fibres. [3] MAGP-1 is able to bind with fibrillin-1, tropoelastin and is believed to be involved in elastic fibre assembly as it bridges the two molecules together. [11] MAGP-2 interacts with and binds to fibrillin-1 and fibrillin-2 and is believed to be functionally involved in cell signalling in the assembly of microfibrils.
Fibulins are a family of five different acidic glycoproteins, but fubulin-1, fibulin-2 and fibulin-5 are the three that are most implicated in the biology of elastic fibres. Fibulin-1 is not associated with individual microfibrils but is associated with the elastin core of elastic fibres. Fibulin-5 localises to the interface of elastin and microfibrils. Fibulin-2 is able to strongly bind with tropoelastin and fibrillin-1. Fibrilin-4 has some but relatively weaker affinity to tropoelastin. [12]
Elastin microfibril Interface Located Protein (EMILIN)-1 is another microfibril protein localised to the elastin-microfibril interface. EMILIN-1 is able to regulate the deposition of tropoelastin on microfibrils and bind to elastic fibres on the surface of cells. [13]
Assembly of Elastic Fibre
The formation of elastic fibers is a complex process which is comprised of multiple interactions between different proteins, enyzmes and binding sites. Elastic fibers are mostly comprised of elastin and microfibrils which makes up most of the structure and the processes of formation are closely regulated and carried out by the smaller protein components; tropoelastin, lysyl oxidases, fibrilin-4 / fibrilin-5 and integrins.
Initially, tropoelastin molecules are secreted from elastogenic cells [14] (e.g. dermal fibroblast, vascular smooth muscle cells and lung alveolar cells) as a soluble precursor [15] that has a mass of approximately 70 kDa [16]. These tropoelastin molecules undergo the process of coacervation [17] where the molecules rapidly self-associate, driven by the hydrophobic interactions to form protein rich aggregates. These aggregates of tropoelastin are organised in a cross-linked manner and are guided by a 67-kDa elastin-binding protein to the cell surface [18] with the assistance of glycosaminoglycans as well as one or more proteins from the LOX family [19].
Within the aggregate tropoelastin molecules, fibulin-4 and/ or fibulin-5 extracellular matrix proteins (ECMP), work to facilitate and assist in the cross-linking of individual tropoelastin molecules as well as maintaining and limiting the size of the aggregates [20] on the cell surface. Fibulin-4 and fibulin-5 ECMP's are crucial molecules in the assembly of elastic fibres and also play a non-redundant role during elastic fibre formation. [21] Newly generated tropoelastin molecules from elastogens continuously attach to the growing aggregates or proceed to form their own aggregates with the assistance of LOX.
Coacervated tropoelastin molecules from the cell surface are then deposited to the onto microfibrils, which acts as a scaffold allowing for the formation of elastic fibres, held near the cell surface by integrins. Integrins are the transmembrane receptors are the bridges for cell-cell interactions. [22] Upon transportation and attachment to the microfibril structures, coalesced tropoelastin molecules form larger aggregates on the whole surface of the fibres with the assistance and regulation of more LOX and fibulin proteins leading to the complete formation of elastic fibres when enough aggregates have been attached.
Step by Step Procedure of Elastic Fibre Formation (refer to image 'Process of Elastic Fibre Assembly)
|Initially Tropoelastin is secreted by cells and then organised into cross-linked aggregates on the cell surface with the assistance with cell surface glycosaminoglycan's and one or more LOX
|Fibulin-4 and/or Fibulin-5 closely interact with the aggregated tropoelastin molecules on the cell surface to facilitate cross-linking or to limit the aggregate size
|Newly generated Tropoelastin molecules are constantly formed and attached to elastin aggregates that already exist on the cell surface. These larger aggregates are then transferred onto pre-existing Microfibrils : [Microfibrils are made primarily of Fibrilin-1 and/or Fibrilin-2, possibly containing other microfibril associated proteins. These Microfibrils bind to the cell surface via Integrins which are transmembrane receptors that bridge cell-cell interactions]
|Fibulin-4 and Fibulin-5 both bind to Fibrilin-1 and may help transfer the elastin aggregates to the microfibril
|Elastin aggregates on the microfibril coalesce into larger structures and are further cross-linked by LOX to form the complete and functional elastic fibre, during this stage, Fibulin-4 and/or Fibulin-5 may assist in facilitating cross-linking
Structure serves as function
If you think about a rubber band, it can be stretched when a force is applied to it. When the force stretching the rubber band is released, the rubber band resumes back to its original shape. Similarly, with age and repetitive stretching of the skin, the elastic fibres that produce this elongation become less "elastic" resulting in reduced resilience, recoiling and adaptability.
Often the structure inside a biological system will serve well its main function. This can be clearly seen in cross sections of the branches of the aorta, stemming from the heart. What can be seen in histological cross sections are walls that are thick, muscular and contain high amounts of elastic fibres. The reason for this is that blood exiting the heart via the aorta needs to supply all the organs of the human body. Therefore, understandably, it is under enormous pressure and carries large volumes of blood. The structure of the artery needs to be able to carry out function. Elastic fibres of this type can stretch up to 1.5 times their length and resume back to their original length in repetitions with every heart beat.
The human body without and elastic fibres would not be able to maintain many functions. Elastin can be found in various places in the human body. Some of these places and the functional component of elastin are found in this section. Common places where elastin usually resides are:
• Blood vessels
• Lungs
• Skin
• Elastic Cartilage
• Connective Tissue
Tropoelastin - Elastin's bioactive assembly module [23]
Elastic Arteries
Branches of the heart that stem off the aorta can come in various shapes and sizes, such as the thickness of their wall, their length and type of artery (e.g. muscular, elastic) [25] .If we take a closer look at the cross sections of these vessels, there are three distinguished layers or tunics to the division of the walls. From the lumen of the artery to its most superficial layer they are Tunica; Intima, Media, and Adventitia respectively.
Tunica Intima
The tunica intima envelops the lumen of the blood vessel. Lying closely to the lumen is the simple squamous endothelial cells [26] which are situated above its associated connective tissue. Dividing the Tunica intima from the Tunica media, is the internal elastic lamina [27].
The internal elastic lamina is the first elastic layer found in the blood vessel from the lumen and serves the role of allowing the tunica intima to move independently from the other tunicas as the elastic fibres expand with increased systolic blood pressure. [28] Systolic blood pressure refers to the maximum blood pressure the that will be experienced by the blood vessel under ventricular contraction. Thus, it is understandable that the tunica intima of elastic arties is significantly different to that of other arteries due to the nature of serving out its purpose.
Tunica Media
As depicted in the histological diagram below, the tunica media consists of:
• fine elastic fibres that are dispersed across this layer and are less visible than those found in the tunica intima and adventitia [29]
• circular smooth muscle fibres with little to no connective tissue when compared to other types of arteries[30].
• Collagen fibres are also found between the elastic fibres [31].
There are concentric fenestrated elastic fibres found in the tunica media function [32] as a pressure reservoir as blood passes through these blood channel and springs back to its original state as the blood pumping process continues and then begins again.
Tunica Adventitia
Some scientists will include external elastic lamina, as part of the tunica media and others as part of the Tunica Adventita. However, the underlying fact it that it the external elastic lamina divides the media from the adventitia. The external elastic lamina provides added allowance for stretching to occur and has the same function as the internal elastic lamina.
Under the elastic lamina lies the smooth muscle which help support the movement of blood along its course [33] . The adventitia is the most thinnest tunica of the elastic wall. It also contains collagen fibres and small amounts of connective tissue.
Elastic fibres are ubiquitous in the lung, for the need to expand and stretch with every breath that is inhaled and recoil back to its original resting state with air is exhaled. Elastic fibres are mainly found in the terminal branches of the respiratory tree, their ubiquity is increased, and the structure of the fibres take on a circular or helical arrangement as you move down the respiratory tree. In order for maximum contact to occur between the terminal branches of the respiratory tree, the alveoli, and the oxygen breathed in, a cyclic (expansion and shortening) exchange surface area is provided for by elastic fibres. Research has suggested that elastin and collagen fibres from alveoli, bronchi, interlobular septae, and the pleura all appear to have associations with the fibres of the pulmonary arteries.
As with the heart, elastic fibres in the lung are arranged in circular and longitudinal arrangements. [36]. AS the fibres continue distally they take on a circular or helical arrangement [37]. Elastic fibres in the lung can stretch up to 140% of their length before they break o the elastic fibres contained within the elastin become more and more [38].
Emphysema is a disease that affects all smokers. The elastic walls of the small airways are degraded and the alveoli of the lungs are unable to expand and resume back when breathing occurs [39]. Elastic fibres, in a normal and healthy lung can stretch up to 140% of their length before they break [40]. The percentage of which elastic fibres can stretch in smoker is significantly smaller and the elastin is damaged by continued and repeated inhalation over the years. Thus, often smokers will have a difficult time to take deep breaths, even during activities that not considered rigorous such as climbing stairs. Understanding the critical role for elastin in lung development and disease will facilitate the discovery of therapies aimed at promoting pulmonary regeneration through alveolation and lung growth in an effort to improve the outcomes of patients afflicted with [41].
The importance of elastic fibres in skin is noticeably evident in the older age of men and woman. Thereby through the aging process elastic fires become stiff and less resilient to stress. Recent research has focused on the generation of collagen elastin in three dimensional imaging of the human dermis to further understand the micro-structures of the skin, which is believed to be helpful in the fabrication of bionic engineered skin. [43]. The elasticity of skin has also gained the interest of the cosmetic industry.
Skin is the largest organ of the human body and is made up of 3 highly distinguishable layers. From superficial to deep, the layers of the skin are; the epidermis, dermis, hypodermis.
The epidermis of the skin is the most outermost layer and therefore subject to the harsh conditions of the environment such as UV rays from the sun and wind. Within this layer there consists of five other layers however, elastic fibres are not found within the epidermal layer. The elasticity of skin is provided by the dermis which is separated from the epidermis by the basement membrane [44].
The main role of the dermis is to protect it from mechanical stress, tension, provide elasticity and thermoregulation. [45] The dermis layer of skin is divided into two layers; a papillary layer and a reticular layer. In both of these layers, elastic fibres can be found. Together, these make up approximately 1-2mm in thickness.
The dermis consists of loose areola (papillary layer) and dense connective tissue (reticular layer), which differs in the thickness along the length of the skin. This provides a cushion for mechanical stress such as bumping into objects. This layer also consists of elastic fibres that stretch when skin is stretched or pulled. However, as time progresses and with age, the resilience of which elastic fibres are able to stretch and recoil is lost in skin.
Wrinkling of skin
Elastic fibre degeneration due to aging and lack of collagen production are factors that give rise to the wrinkling of skin [46]. Unlike many other components of the extracellular matrix, elastin has a slower rate of repair and regenerative capacity. Thus, the aging process of skin is usually advanced by continuous exposure to UV radiation from the sun <pubmed>PMC11978565</pubmed></ref>. Heavy smokers can add years to their skin by the extent of which smoking can damage the elastic fibres at such a high decline. With the advancement of technology, the advent of tissue engineering has ignited an interest in tissue engineering and elastic fiber assembly within synthetic matrices, as attempts are made to confer the correct physical properties inherent in blood vessels or skin <pubmed>PMC12784064</pubmed></ref>.
Clinical Significance
Ebola Virus
Ebola virus is an aggressive pathogen that causes a highly lethal hemorrhagic fever syndrome in humans with mortality rates varying between 50 to 90%. An important manifestation of Ebola virus infection is Disseminated Intravascular Coagulation, which is a syndrome characterized by systemic intravascular activation of coagulation and generalized deposition of fibrin in the circulation. As clinical manifestations, the Ebola virus disease can be composed by hypotension, generalized fluid distribution balance, lymphopenia, coagulopathy, hemorrhage and high fever.
Based on previous studies, it was suggested that the Ebola virus glycoprotein is the main determinant of vascular cell injury and thus it was proposed that the direct Ebola virus replication-induced structural damage of endothelial cells triggers the hemorrhagic diathesis. This study suggested, by using the ISM technique (information spectrum method), that the EMILINs (Elastin Microfibril Interface Located Proteins), which are expressed mostly in the vasculature extracellular matrix and distributed throughout the blood vessel walls, play a relevant role in interaction between Ebola virus glycoprotein and the endothelial extracellular matrix, contributing to the infection and the pathogenesis of Ebola virus by damage of the extracellular matrix and vascular homeostasis. While EMILINs are well known to play a role in coagulation, as a component of the vessel wall and a component of the thrombus, these proteins could also be involved in Disseminated Intravascular Coagulation by interaction with Ebola virus glycoprotein. [48]
Pulmonary emphysema
The lung is a very complex and sophisticated matrix structure on which lung epithelium and endothelium reside. The typical destructive lung disease is pulmonary emphysema, a destructive process encountered mostly in smokers and a disease component of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). COPD is characterized by persistent airflow limitation that is usually progressive and related to an enhanced chronic inflammation response in the airways and the lungs to noxious particles or gases. Inhaled cigarette smoke and other noxious particles such as smoke from biomass fuels cause lung inflammation, a normal response that appears to be modified in patients who develop COPD. This chronic inflammatory response may induce parenchymal tissue destruction, resulting in emphysema, and disrupt normal repair and defense mechanisms, resulting in small airway fibrosis. These pathological changes lead to air trapping and progressive airflow limitation, causing breathlessness and other characteristic symptoms of COPD. [49]
The study aimed to understand the roles matrix metalloproteinases play in the development of pulmonary emphysema. Matrix metalloproteinases contribute substantially to lung matrix degradation during the evolution of cigarette smoke induced emphysema by destruction of both elastin and collagen matrix proteins. Elastin and collagen are very important proteins for the maintenance of the lung architecture and structure, and therefore degradation of both elastin and collagen is required for the development of pulmonary emphysema, though evidence remains strongest for elastin, since adults are effectively incapable of elastic fiber repair. [50]
The clinical manifestations of arterial and venous thrombosis represent the leading causes of death in the developed world. While arterial and venous thrombosis have important pathobiological differences, both are complex and influenced by multiple genetic and environmental factors. Acute thrombosis at the site of a plaque is thought to be a precipitating event in the transition from a stable or subclinical atherosclerotic disease to acute myocardial infarction, ischemic stroke or peripheral arterial occlusion, all important conditions that might lead the patient to death. For individuals undergoing surgery, pulmonary thromboembolism and venous thrombosis are common. [51]
The EMILIN proteins are a family of extracellular matrix glycoproteins that play important role not only in elastogenesis and vascular architecture, but also in hemostasis and thrombosis. EMILIN2, Elastin Microfibril Interface Protein2, was identified as a gene expressed during cardiovascular development, on cardiac stem cells, and in heart tissue in animal models of heart disease. In humans, EMILIN2 gene is located on the short arm of chromosome 18, and patients with partial and complete deletion of this chromosome region have cardiac malformations. The results presented by the study indicated that EMILIN2 is necessary for platelet aggregation, clot retraction and thrombus formation, showing that it has multiple influences in pathophysiology of thrombosis and suggested that its role as a prothrombotic risk factor may arise from its effects on platelet aggregation. [52]
Vitamin A deficiency and alterations in the extracellular matrix
Vitamin A or retinol can be considered the most multifunctional vitamin in mammals. It has a lot of biological roles and it is known to modulate the synthesis of extracellular matrix proteins, including elastin. For this reason, the structure and composition of this extracellular compartment is deeply altered as a result of vitamin A deficiency. Its deficiency, along with protein malnutrition, is currently the most common and serious nutritional disorder worldwide. Biologically, vitamin A is important for normal embryonic development and organogenesis, and exert major effects on postnatal tissue homeostasis, vision, reproduction, immune function, growth, cellular differentiation, proliferation and apoptosis. In agreement with the multiple functions of retinoids, deficiency of vitamin A leads to a spectrum of clinical manifestations, known as vitamin A deficiency disorders. These include mild to severe xerophtalmia, squamous metaplasia of transitional and glandular epithelia, growth disturbances, anemia, susceptibility to infections and increased mortality.
The study aimed to show that altered extracellular matrix will potentially compromise organ function and lead to diseases, like liver, pulmonary and renal fibrosis, which are common pathological states associated with alterations in the extracellular matrix, giving to vitamin A a very important role in the maintenance of an adequate extracellular matrix and thus organ function. [53]
Future Directions
Elastic fibres are very large, complex structures that are still quite a poorly understood component of the extracellular matrix. Challenges for the future include describing how cells are able to regulate elastic fibre assembly by establishing the hierarchy of molecular interactions and the molecular composition. Research continues to better describe the biomechanical properties of microfibrils and microfibrillar-associated proteins. [54] At the organism or phenotypic level, there is very little understanding about how elastic fibres influence the behaviours of cells. A priority of future research includes aiming to identify cellular receptors, signalling mechanisms and growth factors. With continued progress in the area, we will be able to grasp a greater understanding of elastic fibres and develop methods for elastic fibre regeneration or repair to manage the effects of ageing and diseases. [3]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 <pubmed>9851686</pubmed>
- ↑ <pubmed>8761465</pubmed>
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 <pubmed>12082143</pubmed>
- ↑ <pubmed>PMC2032789 </pubmed>
- ↑ <pubmed> 868643 </pubmed>
- ↑ <pubmed> PMC2120487 </pubmed>
- ↑ <pubmed>3980982</pubmed>
- ↑ <pubmed> PMC3060269</pubmed>
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 <pubmed>18228265</pubmed>
- ↑ <pubmed>11426877</pubmed>
- ↑ <pubmed>10793130</pubmed>
- ↑ <pubmed>8702639</pubmed>
- ↑ <pubmed>10358019</pubmed>
- ↑ <pubmed>1603038</pubmed>
- ↑ <pubmed>1208143</pubmed>
- ↑ <pubmed>18468477</pubmed>
- ↑ <pubmed>21081222</pubmed>
- ↑ <pubmed>2546580</pubmed>
- ↑ <pubmed>11642359</pubmed>
- ↑ <pubmed>18228265</pubmed>
- ↑ <pubmed>24613575</pubmed>
- ↑ <pubmed>12297042</pubmed>
- ↑ <pubmed>PMC3879170</pubmed>
- ↑ <pubmed>PMC3190022</pubmed>
- ↑ <pubmed>PMC3554626</pubmed>
- ↑ <pubmed>PMC6998480</pubmed>
- ↑ <pubmed>PMC2409089</pubmed>
- ↑ <pubmed>PMC2775470</pubmed>
- ↑ <pubmed>PMC2465023</pubmed>
- ↑ <pubmed>PMC3383658</pubmed>
- ↑ <pubmed>PMC3659253</pubmed>
- ↑ <pubmed>PMC2117177</pubmed>
- ↑ <pubmed>PMC21861688</pubmed>
- ↑ <pubmed>PMC2593497</pubmed>
- ↑ <pubmed>PMC3380608</pubmed>
- ↑ <pubmed>24748954</pubmed>
- ↑ <pubmed>PMC20724566</pubmed>
- ↑ <pubmed>PMC2658707</pubmed>
- ↑ <pubmed>PMC267926</pubmed>
- ↑ <pubmed>PMC2658707</pubmed>
- ↑ <pubmed>PMC2658707</pubmed>
- ↑ <pubmed>PMC3190022</pubmed>
- ↑ <pubmed>25781868</pubmed>
- ↑ <pubmed>PMC25781868</pubmed>
- ↑ <pubmed>PMC1132364</pubmed>
- ↑ <pubmed>PMC11293471</pubmed>
- ↑ <pubmed>PMC2799629</pubmed>
- ↑ <pubmed>PMC4333865</pubmed>
- ↑ 2015 Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease, http://www.goldcopd.org/uploads/users/files/GOLD_Report_2015.pdf
- ↑ McGarry Houghton A., Matrix metalloproteinases in destructive lung disease, Matrix Biol (2015),http://ac.els-cdn.com/S0945053X15000396/1-s2.0-S0945053X15000396-main.pdf?_tid=1c4289b8-f84e-11e4-9668-00000aab0f01&acdnat=1431397689_b69dfdf01822da057f0ca980cde0b08e
- ↑ <pubmed>PMC3113922</pubmed>
- ↑ <pubmed>PMC4319747</pubmed>
- ↑ <pubmed>PMC4245576</pubmed>
- ↑ <pubmed> 10564258</pubmed>


text:
Bestival 2013 Information
Name: Bestival 2013
Venue:Robin Hill, UK
Isle of Wight
About Bestival 2013
Set in a beautiful country park in the heart of the Isle of Wight, Bestival is a weekend of eclectic music, eccentric people
and plenty of fancy dress. Winner of Best Medium Festival numerous times at the UK Festival Awards, the event has cemented
itself as one of the best boutique events in the country, and it celebrates its 10th anniversary in 2013.
Radio 1 DJ Rob da Bank handpicks the line-up, so fans can watch anything from international superstars to the complete unknown - but all the acts are guaranteed to captivate. Expect dance, indie and hip hop to be lined up against jazz, pop and skiffle, but most of all expect the unexpected as you're bound to find your favourite new band in there somewhere.
Over 400 live acts, DJs and comedians perform over the weekend spread between over eight tents and stages as well as oddities hidden in the woods. The Bollywood Bar houses dance heavyweights, the Big Top has the best of live music and The Bandstand will showcase some smaller acts on traditional Victorian stage.
An annual fancy dress theme will be announced nearer the time but bought and homemade costumes will be seen perusing the WI Tea Tent, Farmer's Market, burlesque tent and toboggan run.
Quirkiness, tomfoolery and nonsense are the main appeal of the festival with the atmosphere as enjoyable as any act you'll see over the weekend. So get into that dressing up box and prepare to be pleasantly surprised...


text:
We are slowly getting things hung and settled in our new house. I will show you guys each room as I get them done (if there is even such a thing as "done") and the promised kitchen reveal is coming soon.
I do have my mantle hung and decorated for winter though and I'm loving how it looks in the new space!
(P.S. I have had a ton of emails asking about my mantle. My dear husband built it for me. He has promised to write up a little something describing how it is built and the dimensions and such. Not sure when he will actually get to it, but I'll keep bugging him until he does. Okay?)
I put my mirror and shutters up like I had in my old house. Then for the winter display I have a grouping on one side with my Family Rules Print, a vase with beads and "ice sticks" and a glass candle goblet.
Then the other side has my adorable snowman. My MIL got it for me for Christmas this year and I think its so cute!!! It reads "Families are forever because love never melts." Ahhh!!!!
The whole display is tied together with a garland off my Christmas tree and "sugared" fruit and pine cones scattered throughout.
So that's it. Its simple but cute. Can't wait to show you guys the rest of the space! Be back soon!
As always I'm linking to these great parties and events: